By Ruth Brown, Idaho Reports
The State Public Defender’s Office reports only a small number of vacancies in the office after taking over the new statewide system for operating public defense last week.
As of Oct. 9, the SPD’s Office had 276 employees and 26 open positions at the state’s 12 county-based public defense offices and state office. Other counties use contracted attorneys for public defense and conflict cases. Patrick Orr, spokesperson for SPD, said the office had 114 contracted attorneys statewide to handle public defense or conflicts when an institutional office is not available.
As of Oct. 10, the agency’s employees are not yet uploaded into Transparent Idaho, a state-run website that documents the wages of the state workforce and other public expenditures.
The SPD office said in early August that based on its job offers, about 77% of SPD employees would receive a salary increase, while 7% of salaries would remain the same, and 15% of employees would see a decrease from their current county pay rate. The size of those increases and decreases isn’t entirely clear yet. Previously, county commissioners determined salaries for public defenders in their counties, so wages varied by county. Now, the state sets salaries for public defenders and other SPD employees.
The SPD’s office did not disclose how many of the former county public defenders declined to take the job with the state, but at the time it sent about 300 job offers to county employees.
It isn’t yet clear how many of the 276 SPD employees came from the county offices, and how many are new hires.
The change to the public defense system came after an ACLU lawsuit, Tucker v Idaho, which found significant deficiencies in Idaho’s public defense system, with overburdened public defenders handling too many cases, and indigent defendants who had little to no access to their attorneys.
The Sixth Amendment of the U.S. and Idaho Constitutions entitles all criminal defendants to an attorney if they cannot afford one.
Ruth Brown | Producer
Ruth Brown grew up in South Dakota and her first job out of college was covering the South Dakota Legislature. She’s since moved on to Idaho lawmakers. Brown spent 10 years working in print journalism, including newspapers such as the Idaho Statesman and Idaho Press, where she’s covered everything from the correctional system to health care issues. She joined Idaho Reports in 2021 and looks forward to telling stories about how state policy can impact the lives of regular Idahoans.